Slated to open early this month, the inaugural Honest Smash + Grab has taken over the group’s London Liverpool Street restaurant and is being billed as a pop-up.
Restaurant understands that the group intends to open a dedicated site soon after, likely with a smaller footprint that will suit the quick service restaurant model.
It comes after Honest Burgers, which was launched by Tom Barton and Phillip Eeles in 2011 and now operates 39 restaurants across England and Wales, raised close to £3m last year to enable it to ‘challenge the big guys’ in the QSR space with the new concept.
Barton says he hopes the new concept will allow Honest Burgers to expand into spaces it was previously unable to, including transport hubs.
Plans for the new QSR brand have been fuelled by the success of Honest Burgers' lighter and lower priced smashed burger, and comes amid a growing consumer appetite for smash burgers more generally.
Earlier this year, Honest Burgers set out an ambitious plans to ‘quadruple the size of the business’ by 2030 following what it described as ‘exceptional results’ for the first half of 2024, with like-for-like sales growth of 11%.
Profitability is also ahead of forecast, with more than 60% growth in EBITDA performance.
“We’ve had a great first half of this year, which follows a strong performance last year, showing that demand for great quality burgers at great value for money continues to grow,” says Honest Burgers CEO Matt Brandon.
